Project-based companies, or Project Businesses, operate in a very fluid, high-risk environment that demands organizational agility. The more fluid your environment is, the more agile you must be to be able to react. However, if it takes too long for you to know where your project stands and to react because of manual-based processes, that’s a problem.
This is the sixth blog of a seven-part blog series (see the fifth blog here) that discusses why productivity in Project Business has flatlined by addressing the seven challenges of a Project Business.
Challenge #6: Lack of Automation
One of the biggest challenges facing Project Businesses today is the lack of automation, which is a direct result of the fragmented application landscape they typically deploy to operate.
Project Business workloads or processes are usually limited within a silo. There are workloads that happen in the planning silo, workloads in the ERP/accounting system, workloads in a specific spreadsheet, or workloads on the procurement side, etc. Depending on your business, the number of silos can be quite extensive.
The problem is these silos require manual interventions to move processes between them. This step causes delays, inefficiencies, errors, and a lack of visibility. All these lead to a hindered ability to react when issues arise.
“If you’re not able to automate those processes, it means that when something happens in the planning silo, that event needs to translate into an Excel sheet or be communicated manually to another department, such as procurement,” said Henrik Lerkenfeld, VP of Engineering at Adeaca. “When moving the project forward, procurement then needs to go and renegotiate with the vendors so that we get the materials in at an earlier stage to match the schedule.”
“If you don’t have automation, you rely on manual intervention,” he added. “This means you end up with project controls and workloads being neglected or not being done nearly as frequently as they should.”
Lack of automation means someone needs to intervene and make that transition from one silo to the next. And oftentimes, that doesn’t happen.
The result is a significant reduction in a company’s ability to react. This is organizational agility, and it is extremely important to the delivery performance of projects and the Project Business as a whole.
Automation= More Projects Delivered On Time, On Budget
When delivering projects is how you directly serve your customers and how you make money, it’s critical to implement a solution that provides the level of automation and visibility you need to be successful. Manual intervention only puts the delivery of your projects at risk for being late and over budget.
Don’t waste time and resources with manual intervention. Automating your Project Business processes better equips you to manage your projects proactively. The only way to scale, grow and diversify is to adopt a Project Business Automation solution, built specifically for project-based companies. Automation is key to delivering more projects on time and within budget.
If you are frustrated with the archaic and convoluted way in which projects are managed today, join Adeaca on our mission to revolutionize the industry.
Help us bring Project Business Automation to the world.
